Her Captive
by EchoGalen
Summary: Pirate AU. Ysabeau the Deathly finds a very pretty blonde stowaway who promises rewards of treasure and wealth. But when other pirates and troubles plague the Dal Riata, will Ysabeau help Lauren rescue her precious someone? Doccubus
1. Her Captive

"We got one stashed in the hold. Stowaway. Pretty morsel if ya ask me, should we hand her over to the boys-"

"No, I want to see the little thing."

"Yes ma'am."

Ysabeau D., better known as Ysabeau the Deathly, was sauntering across the deck of her ship when her first mate, Trickster, had gotten her attention. She had moved idly towards the bow and had a smile creeping over her lips as she heard of their little... problem.

Sending the man away, she looked around as she fully exposed her smile. They were sailing the high seas and, if the charter maps they had bought were accurate, they were roughly around Glasgow; she didn't need any bullfuckery aboard due to an appetizing stowaway. The men hadn't stepped a foot on land for over eight months and it was only their undying respect and loyalty to Ysabeau that kept them in line.

And the fact they hadn't met anyone to bribe them higher than the woman could.

Passing by the quartermaster, she dipped her head slightly to him, and he responded with a bow his own. She liked the scruffy man, Ysabeau thought as she passed him, if she hadn't there would have been no way Dyson would have ever gotten on board of her fine ship. He had a nice bum too. That always helped.

Quickly entering the hold, her boots smacking against the wood, she looked around sharply.

A small form was huddled against the far back wall, the farthest point from the iron gates, and her blonde hair stood out like a sour thumb from her dark and mucky clothing.

"What 'ave we here? Come on, darlin', let us see your pretty face," Ysabeau cooed as she stepped toward the bars.

The blonde turned slightly, showing only half of her face, and as she saw the captain's brown eyes she turned fully. The woman was tall, Ysabeau thought, but she couldn't have been any taller than herself.

"There's a pretty lass. You know, I could throw you to the boys for sneaking aboard."

"Pirate code forbids it," The woman said, almost nonchalantly. The captain admired her for her spunk.

"What do you know of the pirate code?"

"Enough."

Ysabeau smiled but said, "The code dictates a little thing like you be comin' on board because one of my crew wanted ya, that's against the code. You stowing away is fair game to all of us." Her eyes glinted as she saw the horror in the blonde's eyes and the recognition that Ysabeau had said us, not them. "Did one of my crew bring you aboard? It's punishable by death, you know."

"I know the code, you can't lie to me. You're not allowed to touch me. You are to appoint me a sentinel."

The woman had her there.

"Well I guess ye do know of the code, dearie. Interesting." Ysabeau breathed in deeply and said, "Ye know, if I weren't mistaken, you've got a certain air of nobility to ya. The thrown on muck is dampening it just a smidgen, but I've got a nose for these sorts."

The blonde moved away from the gate and sat back down in the corner. Ysabeau admired her blatant disregard for her authority and eyed the woman determinedly.

"Come on then. I'll send down some clothes for you. You can bathe and change and you will meet me in my cabin at noon."

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here." The blonde eyed the captain furiously. It would have been a little more furious if the blonde's stomach didn't growl immensely.

"Are ya sure? I've got a great assortment of food. Just raided a ship of her cargo not two days ago." Ysabeau smiled wickedly as the blonde looked up in horror. "I'll send down some clothes," She said, before going to the small door.

"Wait!" The blonde called after her. Ysabeau turned and eyed the woman mildly. "What's your name?"

The woman considered, and then reconsidered her response but said, "Beau, darlin. Just Beau to you."

"Beau. M-my name's Lauren Lewis."

"Pleasure to meet you, sweet Lauren Lewis." Ysabeau moved to the bar, as the blonde had done, and reached int to take her hand. Kissing it softly, her eyes never left the blonde's, she turned and walked back out of the room.

Pretty and smart, Ysabeau thought as she walked back up to the deck of her ship. Spotting Trickster, she gave him the order to send down water, cloth, and clothes for the woman in the hold. Ysabeau, despite herself, couldn't wait for the meal they would share later. Couldn't wait to see what this Lauren Lewis had to offer her, she had a nose for people wanting to sell her things, and Lauren Lewis reeked of saleswoman.

Scrunching her nose as she placed a healed boot onto the banister as she looked out into the beautiful sea, she couldn't help but smile.

_Pretty and smart._


	2. Her Deal

Lauren Lewis was about to enter the captain's cabin but before she entered, she smoothed down the front of her very tight corset and took a deep breath. If she didn't snag the captain's attention in this second meeting, all hope would be lost for the person she held dear. Taking another deep breath, she opened the door and entered the cabin.

The captain was standing on the opposing wall, her back to the door, looking out the high window into the sea. Lauren quickly closed the door and moved into the room. Looking around, she saw jewels of enormous brilliance, and different sizes, lining the floors and walls. There was treasure of each value: maps, brilliant pens and paper, coins, gems, laying out across the room in a somewhat orderly fashion. Lauren was struck by this and when the captain did not turn to face her, she decided to speak, ask anything if not about the treasure laying about, but the captain spoke first.

"The sea is beautiful, isn't it, love? The way it can be gently lapping against the bottom of the ship and then, in one blink of an eye, it can destroy what it lifts up unto her."

"C-captain Ysabeau-"

"Just Beau to you, dearie. Don't you remember?"

"I- yes, my apologies. Captain Beau I have a-"

"No," The captain said, finally turning and looking into brown eyes, "Just Beau."

Lauren had to tread carefully. A captain, of any esteem, did not allow a stowaway the privilege to use just their name when addressing them. They barely gave that to their first mate. How was she really supposed to turn away everything she knew about pirates when the woman in front of her denied all those rules.

"I-I have a proposition for you… Beau."

"I thought I smelled something about you." Captain Beau came closer and put her hand on the table, waiting for Lauren to continue.

"I need you to take me somewhere. And this place you will take me is one filled with riches beyond your wildest dreams. If that doesn't interest you, I could always pay you up front as I am very wealthy." Lauren tugged at her fingers slightly as she continued, "I need you and your crew for this. Please I-"

"Who are you looking for?"

She was good, but Lauren feigned ignorance. "I don't understand."

"Let's drop the charade, dearie. You stowed away on a pirate vessel, one you didn't know had a female captain, which shows your desperation. You also decided you would give up your entire fortune to get yourself to this… place of great wealth. You need a pirate ship instead of one from her majesty's fleet, so I ask again, who are you looking for in this place?"

"M-my lover," Lauren said slowly.

"A lover, that's interesting. And what lover is this?"

"The Christian name is… Nadia. Her name is Nadia Beattie."

"Ah, I thought I smelled that too."

Blinking rapidly and looking around again, Lauren's mind was quickly distracted and she asked, "You keep your treasures and valuables just lying around?"

Beau saw how the girl tried to change the subject and allowed it. "Why wouldn't I?

"Any of your subordinates could come in and steal them at any time."

"No man dare enter my cabin without my orders. They are too smart to steal from me." Beau eyed the morsel in front of her and asked, "Do you know why they call me Ysabeau the Deathly?"

Lauren shook her head slowly as the captain came incredibly close. While she spoke, it looked as if the pirate was going to kiss her.

"They call me that because all it takes is one, simple, kiss," Beau put her head next to Lauren's, her right hand draped around her neck, her warm breath nipping at her ear, "and you're dead." Something sharp and cold pressed against the right of Lauren's neck softly and her breath hitched. Beau had brought a dagger around the woman without her noticing.

Lauren tried to stand her ground but failed and tried to get out of the vicinity of the captain, but the woman grabbed her wrist quickly yet gently. The captain was leaning in to kiss the soft lips of Lauren but was diverted when a flurried knock came from the cabin door and immediately after a fit, handsome man came rushing in.

He was out of breath and said, "I'm sorry, milady. But we've got a little… company. It's Fairchild." He looked over at Lauren as he said it and Beau flicked her head, telling him she'd be there in a moment.

After he left, Beau looked down at Lauren and said, "Maybe next time, dearie," and kissed her hand delicately. "Stay here, and keep the door shut. If anyone comes in while I'm gone, you tell me and I'll deal with them… happily."

Lauren watched as the captain left the cabin and she was alone again. Looking around, she saw she could do nothing but sit at the table filled with jewels. If she had looked, just for an instant, she would have seen a ship come starboard of the Dal Riata. She would have seen the carved name of the Ailech in the beautiful wood of the ship and would have put two and two together from what the subordinate said- Fairchild- and the ship's name. But she didn't, and instead, she sat at the table idly as she rubbed her neck. Waiting for her captain to come back to her to contemplate the deal. Hopefully, just hopefully, they had struck one.

"The bloody Fairchild," Ysabeau said, coming up beside the man that had barged in on Lauren and her. "Next time, Dyson, if you come in without being invited, I'll cut off your ears."

"Yes ma'am. My apologies." Dyson smiled, knowing his captain didn't really mean it, and looked over to the Ailech. "How did she know where we'd be?"

"The damned woman knows exactly where we are all the time. It's her gift." Ysabeau called down for a plank and it was dropped immediately when the two ships were close enough together. Walking over to the ship without being invited, like she owned the piece of wood, she made her way quickly to the captain's cabin. Without knocking, she entered.

"Careful Ysabeau. I could see that as a sign of disrespect aboard my ship," The captain of the boat said, looking up from the map on the table they sat on.

"Disrespect? Me? Oh you must have me confused with someone else." She smiled innocently at the opposing captain and laughed. "Ciara O'Breen, how have you been, love?" Walking over to the woman, Ysabeau swooped her into a tight hug and laughed.

"Well you know, killing and pillaging. The usual." The woman smiled innocently at the captain and said, "Now, what are you doing so close to Glasgow?"

Ysabeau moved to the table and poured herself a cup of rum. "You talk as if you own these waters. Careful, love, that's a dangerous bit of talk." Quickly gulping down the alcohol she said, "Glasgow was my home. I wanted to see it again before we sailed out."

"Ah, I see. And what of-"

"Cut the chatter, Fairchild. I know what you want to say, so just come out and say it. There wouldn't be any other reason for you to seek out my ship.

"I see the charade is dropped then, you were always the smart one." The captain looked down at her map and said, "A little birdie told me about your pretty little stowaway." Ciara looked into Ysabeau's eyes to see if she'd betray any recognition. "I would love to see her, if you wouldn't mind."

Ysabeau looked up and saw a small nest for a pigeon to rest in and back down to Ciara. Someone must have been sending the birds back and forth, carrying messages. Ysabeau tried to control her temper and said humorously, "Aye, have you? Tell me who the squealer is and I'll be happy to rip out his tongue and feed it to the sharks."

The captains looked at each other, quite contemplation in their eyes. Who would make the first move? Was there a move to be played? Did one dare attack the other?

"The girl is mine. I will not trade her or relinquish her," Ysabeau said with a laugh.

"My dear Ysabeau. Do you even know who or what you are carrying aboard the Dal Riata?" Ciara came closer, almost into Ysabeau personal space, but stopped just a fraction of a hair away. Her eyes shown truth but the captain ignored her.

"Come now. Let me leave this ship unhindered and I'll be on my merry way." Ysabeau stepped away from Captain Ciara and was almost to the door when she spoke.

"Be careful who you put your trust in, Captain Ysabeau. It might just come back and bite you in the arse."

Ysabeau looked back warily, smiled while she dipped her head in mock salute, and walked out without another word.

"Dyson, look aboard this ship for anywhere a pigeon could roost. If you find it, don't do anything with it, just come tell me immediately. Aye?"

"Aye."

"Good, now go. Do not disturb me again."

Captain Ysabeau left the Ailech with a disdainful air around her. She hated being caught unawares, hated it with every fiber of her being, but she had to control her temper. She needed to know what the importance of the woman in her cabin was.

Entering the cabin, she saw Lauren quickly get up from the chair across the table and tug at her fingers. A nervous habit, Ysabeau thought.

"Tell me who you are," The captain said, coming over and pushing Lauren back into the chair roughly.

"W-what? I don't-"

"Enough games!" Ysabeau slammed her palm into the table, making Lauren jump. "That was Ciara the Fairchild's ship, the Ailech. She never makes an appearance on my ship unless there's something she dreadfully wants. And the only thing she asked about, dearie, was you. Why does she want you?"

"She must want the place I offered you. I-I did ask around before I knew what I needed to do to find someone who would help me."

"Something like that wouldn't spark her interest. So I'm going to ask one more time. Who are you?"

Lauren looked up into Ysabeau's eyes with something like fear but said, "M-my name is Lauren Lewis. My father is a wealthy man, but he got that wealth by crossing a lot of people. Blood money. Captain Ciara must be one of those people. She's been after my family for years. When I asked around for help to save Nadia, she was there and she offered to help me. When I went on her ship, she tried to use me as ransom to get to my father and then kill me. I escaped." Lauren looked away, remembering the horrible memories aboard the Ailech and said, "And now she wants revenge. There's nothing else to tell."

"If you are being untruthful, my dear, I will kill you myself." Ysabeau looked into the woman's eyes intently, making sure she knew exactly what she was saying, found that she did and straightened. "Where is this place your precious Nadia is being held?"

"Y-you mean you'll help me save her?"

"I'll help you get there, aye, but I'm in it for the treasure."

"Of course, right." Lauren nodded to herself but looked up, extending her hand she said, "Then we have ourselves a deal?"

Ysabeau took Lauren's extended hand in her own, shaking it slowly. "We've got ourselves a deal."


	3. Her Displacement

"The men are a little... upset over recent developments," Dyson Thornwood said as he watched his captain get ready for shore. She looked over to him, gauging if he was one of the men that were unhappy, and looked around for coin.

"And why is that, Dyson?"

"They don't seem to understand why only a pair of them get to go ashore. And you didn't make my job any easier to pick them."

Ysabeau, who found what she was looking for, looked back towards the man and said, "It is the quartermaster's job to handle such things among the crew. Besides, if the men had a problem, they know they could come to me."

"They know if they did that, you would cut off certain... essential body parts, and who would want that? Eight folk could fit in the long boat, including you and the girl, that is more than enough for the rest of them."

"Listen Dyson, they know the rules. Would they be so foolish to bring the Dal into harbor in a populated city? What would that accomplish but the queen's guards sending us to the gallows. And if there is any more talk of me and the girl, you will send them my way, aye?" Ysabeau wrapped the string taught around her waist and the coin purse hung loosely around her upper thigh. "We've lost people on the attack the other day. It takes at least eight to properly man the ship- get it out of any danger say they come across it- and only two if we weren't lookin' for the trouble. I'm not going to lose my ship to Fairchild if she decides to come back knowing I'm on shore."

"Ciara wouldn't do that, captain. I know her."

"Aye, you do. And I'll not be having your nether regions tell me how to run my ship. Savvy?"

"Yes, ma'am. Aye."

"Good lad," Ysabeau said, patting Dyson on the shoulder, as she walked by him out of the room. When he followed her up onto the deck, still speaking, she couldn't help but groan.

"Only taking two of the men, they're not going to be happy."

"If I had a flying care of mutiny aboard my ship, I'd invoke the thought now, Dyson. This talk is still happening so tell me. Is there?"

The quartermaster was struck by this and shook his head quickly. "No! No way in hell, ma'am."

"I thought not. The men's coital needs do not outweigh the endgame. Could you imagine, the place the young lass will take us to is filled with jewels and trinkets the men wish they had to buy the women they couldn't now. This will turn out good for us, aye?"

Dyson's eyes shifted downward and he nodded, "Aye."

"Aye. Now, I need you to keep a close eye on the waters while I'm gone."

"If you don't mind me asking... why are you going?"

Ysabeau smiled sweetly at her quartermaster, her friend, and said with a smile on her face as she pulled her glove taught around her hand, "Have'ta keep the miss' happy."

* * *

"Why must we be here, I wonder," Lauren was speaking hurriedly and with conviction as she looked around the very low-key bar they sat in.

Coming into Glasgow was a bother by itself, they had to leave the Dal Riata in a long boat, and row farther than Lauren ever thought possible to harbor. She understood it was a pirate ship, and any ship carrying pirates were shot on site, but she wasn't used to having such difficulty coming into a main city. Never mind the way the two pirates that had been chosen by the quartermaster kept looking at her all the way into port.

Beau leaned in closely and said, "Because the Dal needs more than ten to sail. We need more able bodies for the crew."

"And we couldn't go to, heavens I don't know, somewhere that's frequented by these noble men that wouldn't be bothered by working with pirates!" Lauren's whispered breath nipped at Beau's neck nicely but her words cut deep.

"I will not be explaining me actions to you, missy. You are on board my ship because you say you'll bring me wealth. Nothing more. Have I given any inkling to you as to not trust me?"

Lauren was beat there. In truth, the captain had been overly hospitable towards her. She had not handed her over to the crew when she could, nor did she treat Lauren as any more than a equal. Lauren knew how precious even that was, as when she was cooped up in the house all day- that was if her father was not pushing her into marriage proposals- she was treated as far more than an equal and more like a slave.

She looked into brown eyes, shook her head, and rested her eyes in her lap. Lauren didn't know why she felt like this around the brunette woman beside her. She was a pirate for goodness sake! Lauren knew she shouldn't or wouldn't get infatuated with her. She was only there for Nadia and nothing more. Lauren was quickly surprised as a pair of beautiful hands- strangely wonderful for ones belonging to a pirate- wrapped around hers.

"Don't worry, dearie. We'll get your precious Nadia back." Beau looked into her eyes and hastily added as she let go of the blonde's hands, "And the treasure," before clearing her throat and ordering another drink.

The same barmaid, a young little thing, came over and looked down at them as she handed Beau her drink. Smirking up at the wench Beau said, "Cheers." The barmaid nodded and looked over at Lauren with something like contempt in her eyes. As the girl looked back to Beau, her gaze turned back to one of admiration.

Looking Beau up and down she said, "You're a pirate, aye?"

Lauren, who was looking around idly, snapped her head back and stared in horror at the girl. She was going to turn her away immediately- how dare she say such things!- but when Beau spoke, all thoughts of deniability ran from her mind.

"Aye, lass. I'm a pirate."

"She ain't," The barmaid jutted her chin out to Lauren.

Beau smiled and said, "No. She isn't. But you want to be."

"Yeah, I want."

"And yet you're here. Stealing purse bags from drunk costumers that stammer out of 'ere with half their wits. You handle a blade nicely. But you see... I don't see much else use for you."

The girl eyed Beau over again, most likely offended at the statement, turned and moved to the counter to drop her pitcher of beer on it, and came back to sit at the table. Her eyes shifted and focused barely on something behind the pair and then back on Beau. Leaning in, she spoke hurriedly and to the point.

"I got a copper chasin' me tail. If ya allow me on board, safe passage, I won't scream ya to be the Deathly, savvy?"

Lauren looked over to the captain, she was unsure if she should be frightened of the threat or if she should be scared for the girl's well being. She didn't trust the girl either way as the incident just a few moments before still rang in her mind- the conviction of the girl stealing purses- and she wasn't sure what to believe. She wanted to turn around to see if the copper she was talking about was what the girl focused on before, but Beau put a hand on her thigh and she forgot whatever she was thinking.

"Give us some room, dearie." Beau looked over to her and winked. Lauren blushed but got up and stood by a pillar that held the roof steady above them. She still did not dare look around, for fear of the police figure in the bar, and as she watched Beau lean in closely to the barmaid, she wondered if she could...

Looking back after a little while talking to the wench, Ysabeau had learned her name to be Kenzi with little use of a last name, she eyed the room quickly and came back to the same result.

Lauren Lewis, her leverage and her prize to the biggest treasure hunt of her life, was gone.

* * *

Constable Thomisina Corvus sat in the very run down bar watching her target. Kenzi McAdams had been evading her on and off throughout the town, and as the small girl finally had a stable job, Thomisina saw it was still an dishonest one. The girl was still pilfering the coin purses off of drunken customers and the constable had put her head in her hands to not take the girl into the hold immediately.

She was trying to be nice, trying to give the kid one more chance, but she was testing her patience. And, as Thomisina looked on, she saw Kenzi seemed to have gotten two new friends. A rather delectable blonde, who shown unfamiliarity in her eyes, and a brunette, that showed danger, who Kenzi had been clocking ever since they entered the bar.

Wondering if they were a pair- a group of assassins or thieves as Kenzi was, maybe- something the constable had been watching Kenzi for to promote herself from constable to real time copper, she sat more at attention as the brunette ordered herself another drink. When Kenzi had sat down at the table, making herself very cozy with the pair, and the brunette had spoken softly to the blonde, Thomisina watched as the blonde woman made it to a pillar and watched the table. The constable could see the woman wasn't in her element there and wondered if she was really part of the assassin's group.

Thomisina bore a hole into the blonde, she could tell the woman was making it clear she wouldn't look around, she watched as the shorter woman- to her anyways- looked towards the door and back at the pair sitting at the table. Finally deciding what she would do, the blonde turned slowly and walked out of the bar with only one look back as she closed the door tightly behind her.

This was her chance. If she caught one of the members of Kenzi's thief guild, she could be glorified as a hero, promoted even, for getting the rats off the street! Her wicked smile split over her features and she got up slowly as to not attract the kid's attention. Putting on her coat, she walked to the door without a sound, and closed it quickly. This was her chance. And she was _not_ going to give it up.

* * *

Lauren walked hastily through the streets of Glasgow after leaving the bar. She wondered if Beau would be upset, wondered if the captain would come in the night like the boogieman and steal her away again, once she figured Lauren wasn't in the vicinity. Wondered if the captain would show her mercy after she came back to her and her ship. A fleeting thought of wondering if Beau would actually leave her there, or if she would start an all out confrontation with the town to secure the good blonde passed through her mind. Lauren shivered at the very thought.

Coming up to the house she had been eager to find, she quickly knocked on the door and waited patiently for an answer. The door opened swiftly and Lauren's curls wafted in front of her at the sudden force of the door whooshing inward.

"I'm sorry, miss! I didn't mean to give ya a fright," An old ginger maid said. Her voice was one of olden day Scotland and it rang a great memory in Lauren's mind from her childhood and her studies.

"Miss' Evert! Is that you?"

"Aye, love. That's me name." Fixing the crooked circular glasses on the bridge of her nose, she peered through them and cried with joy. "Oh lovely Lauren! Come back to visit 'ave we? The master's out back. Would you like me to take you there, love?"

"No, no Miss' Evert. You stay here. It was very nice meeting you again. I- I remember our lessons well."

"Oh dearie. So do I. You must come back when ya done meetin' the master."

"I will, I'd like that." Lauren smiled at the older woman, her mentor, and turned from the door and it's warmth and began the walk around the mansion. Her college and friend had a small workshop built outside of his living area, independent of the mansion itself, and he loved to shut himself in when he had a grand idea. The man was the most dangerous of men: a thinker. He'd shut himself in his workshop with ideas of contraptions that could fly as birds, of new types of swords and heavy armory equipment, of hidden daggers that unsheathed with a flick of a wrist. A good man that she had grown up with, that she knew well, and she hoped he still held her in the same esteem.

Coming into the workshop, the old wooden door creaked loudly, but was drowned out by the donkey's circular movements and the spinning of wheels and cogs the animal turned with it. Looking around the workshop, she saw her friend had been very busy since the time she had seen him, as there was many weapons hanging around the turning tables the donkey motored. Coming around the sharp corner she found the familiar sight of her hunched over friend and smiled.

"Isaac?"

The hunched over man bolted up immediately, disturbing the donkey's rhythmic motions, and turned around sharply. When he noticed who it was, his body deflated and he sighed with a laugh peeking through.

"Little Lauren Lewis."

"Well, I'm not so little anymore," Lauren laughed as she went to hug her friend. "How have you been? You've been, uh, busy!"

Isaac Taft looked around his own workshop, a glint in his eyes that Lauren couldn't identify- pride, maybe- and back towards her. "Yes, I have. I wasn't expecting you back here. That's... surprising." His voice had changed suddenly when speaking and Lauren didn't understand how someone she had known for five years sound so... menacing to her.

Very suddenly, something she must have picked up being on a ship full of pirates, maybe after being looked down upon by the barmaid, something made her wish she was somewhere very, very far away. Something that nicked at the back of her neck, that crawled into the pit of her stomach and nested there, something so primal Lauren didn't know she had it in her.

"I-I just wanted to visit and say hello. Miss' Evert asked for me to come back in to speak, I rather think I'll be going now." Lauren turned to go but her wrist was caught by Isaac's rough hand.

"So soon? But you only just got here."

"Isaac, please let me go."

"Did you know how long I've been waiting for this moment? How long the Morrigan had recruited me for this task?" The man stood up suddenly and pulled Lauren along behind him roughly. He pulled her to the spinning wheel that Lauren had past by when walking into the shop.

"Isaac, please, who's the Morrigan? What are you doing? We're friends, Isaac! Don't you remember?"

"I remember a disgusting wench like you coming into my shop, telling me that you're better than me, showing me my calculations and formulas were off."

"Isaac, I never said that. Please, let go of my hand!"

"No, you're going to pay. The Morrigan's orders..." Isaac took a sharp looking blade from the wheel and eyed it longingly. Looking back into Lauren's eyes, his eyes portrayed nothing but hatred for her- she couldn't understand, couldn't fathom why- and he raised the weapon above his head as he pulled out her arm farther for a good clean cut.

Lauren screamed bloody murder as the blade came slicing through the air.

Lauren screamed.

* * *

Thomisina had heard the yelling before she had gotten close enough to the outdoor shop to do much good. She had tailed the doctor, without her noticing, a very good distance from the bar and she wondered if the brunette knew where the pretty blonde went. Forgetting this, she quickly pulled out her knife from her belt, and quickened her steps as the yelling escalated into a wild scream.

Entering the door, she took in the situation briefly, aimed for the scrawny man holding onto the blonde's wrist- presumably to cut it off- and let go the dagger from her hand. Thomisina never stopped moving as, after she threw the knife, she quickly ran to the blonde's side, holding her as she dropped after the knife pierced the man's left chest, just where his heart would be. Thomisina would have commended herself for the good shot, but she was quickly dismayed as the blonde began to cry against her.

"I didn't- I don't- what's going on!" She cried and cried into Thomisina and, when the body of the man hit the floor, the blonde screamed bloody murder.

Thomisina put her hand on her back and pushed her closer to her body. "Shh, shh, it's okay. It's over now." The constable hated crying, hated it with a passion, but she had to be civil to get into the woman's brain. She had to know about the two... acquaintances she kept in the bar. The blonde was obviously not part of the thieving, or assassinating, guild and the constable tried to calm her further as she began to scream and cry. The woman must have been traumatized, insanely so, and on top of her crying the pure state of her was alarming.

Trying to think of something, anything, to ease the woman decidedly did not come to Thomisina's mind and she tried to stammer out words to calm her. The words she did get out were quickly cut short by a sharp, cold blade on lithe of her skin that connected her neck and jaw.

"Let the girl go, and stand up."

Thomisina slowly unclasped her hands from the crying blonde, putting her hands up and rising to her feet slowly. She turned and was met with the sight of a very annoyed, or angry she couldn't tell, brunette and Kenzi behind her. The girl didn't look very amused by the situation either, but she stood back, unwilling to give the information of the constable's position of authority to the brunette.

"No!" The blonde screamed, one of the things she screamed anyways, and got up. Blocking Thomisina's body from the brunette's- the constable noted the brunette immediately withdrew her sword- and the blonde looked at her deathly. "She saved me. I...Isaac would have killed me. You don't really intend to kill the woman who saved my life, do you?"

The brunette came close and whispered furiously to the blonde, all the while looking at Thomisina, "If you do a stunt like this again, I'll be inclined to leave you to it." Moving the blonde out of the way she eyed the constable fully. "And you are?"

"Th... Tamsin. Me name is Tamsin."

"Tamsin. Are you looking to sail into the open waters, and obtain the wealth of the sea on your first voyage out?"

Thomisina looked back towards Kenzi, saw the girl's hesitation- the conflict in her eyes if she should tell the brunette or not- but stayed quite. The girl must not have hated her all along. That didn't help her case, Thomisina fully intended to bring her into the brig for her crimes. But, she thought suddenly, if she agreed with the brunette's offer, she could bring in the whole lot and strengthen her case even further to being promoted. (Of course, she did not think of the repercussions of aligning herself with a couple of pirates- savvy she didn't know they were, but who is the majesties armies really going to listen to?)

The constable looked towards the brunette again and lowered her hands slowly, bringing her right into an open palm. "Sounds like a deal to me, boss."

"Savvy," The brunette said, shaking Thomisina's outstretched hand. "Welcome aboard the Dal Riata." The woman turned and walked out of the room immediately, followed by the blonde and Kenzi.

Thomisina was left there, looking down with a shocked expression on her face, towards her palm. The Dal Riata was Ysabeau's the Deathly's ship. Did she just survive an encounter with a woman the stories claimed no one came out alive? She was going to on board _her_ ship! Trying to contain herself, she sighed fully in the empty shop, made her hand into a fist and let it fall onto her thigh.

So she was going to sail with Ysabeau the Deathly. The woman that left one kiss, one kiss to kill you dead. Bringing in someone that powerful with no doubt snag her the job she pined for. All she had to do was fool a ship full of pirates, stay away from the blonde, and get them all placed in irons and her life would be fortune all the way until she died.

Thomisina Corvus could do this. If only for a short while.

* * *

After Ysabeau had given safe passage to both the little thief and the marksmen, she continued to find another five more scallywags that would take on the responsibilities as crewmen on a pirate ship. It wasn't hard, it never was when _she_ was asking, and to get the slots filled with able bodies wasn't a bad payout for the day.

The only thing that bugged her, however, was when little Lauren had gotten into danger. It bugged her not that the woman was put into that position- that Ysabeau had displaced her on her own watch- but because she _cared_ so much. She had barely known Lauren for more than a few days, a week at best, and yet she was concerning herself with the woman's well being. She would have liked to have told herself it was just for the treasure, by the circles of Hell did she want to tell herself that, but it wasn't. The little lass had a way of getting inside your head, even your cold, shriveled heart, and making you believe you were whole.

For Ysabeau, that was bringing her back before she became a pirate. Before when she had a loving mother, even a father, before they were both murdered right in front of her by the majesty's guard. For some reason or another, the way Lauren would look at ya would make you think everything would be okay. Would make ya leap at the chance to make her smile, to make her notice you.

Ysabeau the Deathly, for whatever reason, was sure as Hell feeling the effect of the blonde. And she downright hated it.

So when Lauren had thanked her over and over when they went to the docks to secure their long boat, when the pretty lass had nodded as Ysabeau helped her along into the boat, had smiled when the captain sat down- she wanted to say she didn't do anything. She wanted to say she ignored the sugary gaze of the blonde. She wanted to say it didn't matter one bit.

But she couldn't.

She could never say that.

_I would never say that..._


	4. Her Reconciliation

Lauren was coming up from the hold, she needed some type of fresh air the underbelly of the ship could not give her, and was surprised when her hand was caught in a tight grip as she made it to the opening. Gasping slightly she looked into blue eyes and she made a questioning face.

"Hello lass," Dyson the Quartermaster said, helping Lauren with the last few steps.

"Hello Mr. Quartermaster, sir." Lauren didn't know the customs so closely as she thought and the man smiled and laughed.

"Mr. Quartermaster? A lassie like yourself be only callin' me by me name." Looking down at her, still holding her hand, he kissed it gently and said, "Dyson Thornwood, at yer service, milady."

Lauren thought if he had a hat, he would tip it to her. She smiled and did a small curtsy. "You already know my name, pirate." She did not say is brashly, only to the point of understanding. "What brings you to the aid of a bumbling lady as myself?"

"Nothing of the hindering sort, I promise. Just saw you might need a little help, and," Dyson came closer to her and looked over to the banister, "to tell you your friend seems to be a bit... on the weather side."

He eyed the railing of the ship and Lauren's eyes followed. The woman who had saved her from her frie- from Taft was leaning over the railing, her hair in disarray.

"Sea sickness is a rubbish thing, lass." Lauren was about to leave him when he caught her hand gently and said, "And, if milady would permit me, I will be your hand in such a time you find yourself in danger. Ysabeau, who was my first ward, has given me to you. I will protect you with my life, milady."

Lauren didn't know what to say at this revelation, and she simply nodded and smiled at the kind man. If she questioned why Beau would send her protection away to be Lauren's she would most likely run around in circles from the implications. So she simply thought of it being the captain not wanting to keep her property safe. Yeah, safe.

"I'm sorry," Lauren said, coming up behind the lighter blonde and putting her hand on her back gently.

The woman spit and looked up towards Lauren. "For what?"

"Sea sickness is a rubbish thing," Lauren replied, trying to smile. The copper smirked but put her head back down, waiting for another load from her stomach to be dislodged. "And I'm sorry for... bringing you into this. If it wasn't for me you wouldn't be on a pirate ship right now."

"Who says I didn't want to be on the ship to begin with," Tamsin said a little too harshly.

"I- I mean, I didn't mean to... sorry." Lauren was about to leave but the woman grabbed her wrist.

"No, I'm sorry. I was being a wanker. I'm just glad you're safe."

Lauren blushed as she looked into bright green eyes, such beautiful green, and at the tender way the woman held her wrist. The kind moment was made short as Tamsin's face contorted into that of pain and she let go of Lauren's wrist to puke.

Lauren cleared her throat and said, "So, uh, what was your profession back on the mainland?"

Tamsin looked up to her and raised her eyebrow in a question. "Why would a pirate care to know?"

"What, no!" Lauren was struck by this and said, "No, I'm not a pirate. I- I stowed away a few weeks ago and bribed the captain to sail to an island full of wealth. It's to save someone close to me." Lauren looked up and smiled kindly at the woman, who smiled in kind back.

"So you have no allegiance to the captain?"

"None once soever. I'm simply here to save someone."

"Do you know how to fight?"

"I-...no."

"Then how do you expect to save someone who's close to you?"

Lauren pondered this and said sadly "I guess I didn't think that far ahead."

"Well, I guess I'm just going to have to help you with that," Tamsin said, putting her hand on Lauren's shoulder and looking into her eyes. Making a face, she said, "After one last hurl."

Lauren smiled and laughed as the woman moved to the banister again. She forgot, for the remainder of the time she should have remembered, that Tamsin had just changed the subject of her profession.

Ysabeau the Deathly was watching with a questionable look at the two blondes down on the deck. The woman who had saved Lauren- Tamsin, or whatever her name was- and she saw Lauren laugh at the woman as she hurled over the side again. Her temper flared and she called Trickster to her side.

"Yes, captain?"

"Why is she laughing with that woman? Did Dyson not tell her how I made him her Hand?"

"Aye, captain."

"Such a noble act, why has she not come and thanked me?"

"One could only guess, captain."

Ysabeau looked at her first mate and realized he was trying to hold back a smirk. "And what is so funny, Trick?"

"Nothing, ma'am." Trickster did not try to hide his smile as his captain looked at him with daggers in her eyes. "It's just that, to get to a woman's heart, you don't need to try to impress her with how noble ya are. Besides, the lass has already seen your nobility by accepting to not kill the woman who saved her. Yer overcompensating."

"Overcompensating?..." The captain placed a finger to her chin in thought. "Maybe you are right. I will invite her to my cabin tonight, and I will show her how gentle I can be."

"May you not allow the girl to decide," Trickster asked, looking up at his captain.

Ysabeau waved him away agitatedly. She had just thought of a brilliant idea, and she would not allow him to ruin it. That night, she would get the blonde in her bed if it was the last thing she'd do.

"You summoned me, captain- I mean, Beau?" Lauren walked into the captain's cabin late in the evening after her sword and combat training with Tamsin. She had bathed just before coming to the cabin, she had worn a very form fitting white dress of sorts that the captain had bought her at port, and she was gracious she did.

The room was adorned with brightly lit candles, incense, and other wonderful things and the table was filled with a feast set for kings. Beau stood at the head of the table and smiled brightly towards the blonde.

"I wanted you to dine with me tonight."

"T-this is all so glorious," Lauren said, coming into the room and closing the door. Turning she saw the table was filled with more food than she thought. Pig, apples, lobster and crab, many other assortments of mouth watering morsels filled the table and Lauren's mouth watered. It had been a long time since she had eaten anything so tasteful.

Sitting down at the table, Beau had even come to pull out Lauren's chair for her, they began to dine. Beau watched Lauren, more than she ate herself, and she smiled as the blonde dug into her food with proper restraints.

After awhile Lauren looked over at the captain and smiled. "Why did you request me here tonight," She asked.

"I must have a reason to ask you to dine with me?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that," Lauren smiled at her own words and she said, "I mean, this is such an exquisite meal for just the two of us. Will the other men get the leftovers?"

"Aye, if that is what you want."

Lauren smiled again and looked down at her plate. "How is the thief girl? I have not seen her at all today."

"Kenzi likes to keep to herself, as she's told me, and has stayed in her bunk."

"Ah, I see." Lauren quieted for a moment, wondering if she should really ask the question, and said, "Why did you appoint Dyson to be my Hand?"

"Because I wanted to keep you safe. Would there be any other reason?"

"Captain, I understand we have differences. I would like you to not be so rude to Tamsin, and you would wish me to stay away from her. I've seen the way you glance at us, the way we practiced today, but to appoint Dyson to me and leave yourself-"

"So you found it appropriate to push against her so many times as you were dueling," Beau cut in, flinging her napkin down onto her meal.

Lauren looked at her, her mouth agape, and said, "I do not so like your implications of our actions! She was teaching me to defend and fight so that I could save Nadia. Nothing more."

"Aye, nothing more. Nothing more my arse." Beau looked at Lauren as if she were scolding a child. "I will allow you to continue to practice with Tamsin-"

"As if you could stop us!"

"-and I will allow you to stay aboard my ship as you do so. But if there are any further interactions with her, so help me you will not like the outcome."

Lauren's breath froze as she wondered what the captain could mean. Was she really so cruel as to kill Tamsin just because Lauren found a passing interest in her? Shaking her head and putting her own napkin onto her meal, she stood promptly.

"I wish to leave now."

Beau caught Lauren's arm as she tried for the door. She whirled Lauren around to face her and held her shoulders tightly.

"You're hurting me, captain... Ysabeau, you are hurting me." Lauren looked into brown eyes and her own shown fear.

The captain let her go and said harshly, "Then go!"

Lauren pivoted quickly and almost ran to the door. Opening it faster than she thought possible, she closed it with even more speed and flinched as she heard the door smack shut. Running down the narrow corridor, she made it to her bunk and quickly got into it. Facing away from the rest of the crew, who were all sleeping, she held her hands to her mouth and tried not to weep. The question should never have been asked, she understood as she lay in her bunk, and she promised herself she would never ask it again. Not for her own sake, but for Tamsin's. She quickly shut her eyes as she thought of the captain really killing the blonde and she bit down on her knuckles. She wouldn't think about it for that night.

Ysabeau had been having the same effect, but instead of crying, she swiftly threw daggers into the wall of her ship with anger. Cursing herself for her brashness, she quickly looked out into the sea and was calmed- if only a smidgen. The woman was having an effect on her she didn't like, that she couldn't put her finger on, and she hated it. She either needed to get rid of her, that other blonde- Tamsin, and forget about the treasure completely, or she would need to control her emotions.

Taking a knife from the cooked pig, she threw it to align with the others sticking from the wall.

She would get this in order one way or the other. That, she promised herself.


	5. Her Plan

**A/N: Sorry for the short-ish, chapter. I simply didn't want to make a really long running one in hopes as the next would be two times this long. I hope you are all still sticking with our Pirates and I'm sorry it took so long to get this up. I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Ma'am, I've received a great deal of reports of the Dal's heading." Ciara the Fairchild walked behind her captain with her eyes glued to the back of the woman's head.

It was only the brunette in front of her that could make her turn so insistently childish and weak, and she wanted to take her blade from her boot and slice her throat open there on the deck of the ship. But, Ciara told herself, if she did that then what would happen to her lover aboard the Dal Riata? At this rate, she could at least keep the passengers aboard the Dal safe and only divulge enough information to get the brunette off her back to keep them breathing. If not for her, she thought as she followed the woman, the Dal would have already been sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

Turning the corner as they were walking along the Fleurette's deck, Ciara was caught off guard and tilted her head downward immediately when her captain turned around swiftly.

"Speak."

"Um-well- ma'am, they seem to be heading..."

"I don't have all day, darling. Either spit it out or go have a swim with the sharks." Her voice was too pleasant, too perky, and it made Ciara shiver.

"They seem to be... heading for the cove, ma'am."

Captain Evony- Morrigan- Marquise, who had turned away to take off her gloves, swung around sharply and glared down at the blonde woman. The brunette had watched as the blonde's eyes quickly hit the deck when she turned and she wanted to vomit at the girl's cowardice.

"Lochlainn Cove?* And who the hell are leading them there, Fairchild." It wasn't a question and the brunette smacked her left hand with her gloves.

"The... the duchess sailed with Ysabeau four days ago from Glasgow. My reports say they picked up two new crew mates that could possibly be turned, and-" Ciara's words were cut off as the side of her face received a hard slap.

"How did you let the blonde bitch escape," Evony yelled harshly into her face. "How was it so difficult for you to keep the harpseel locked up in irons for three days! Are all of my subordinates incompetent or is it just you?" Evony turned away sharply and bent her head, heading down into the belly of the ship, and turned right to lead to her cabin.

Ciara, without caressing her stinging cheek, followed the woman silently and when they reached the cabin, she was greeted with the sight of a scruffy, pale looking man. She hadn't seen him before, but Evony walked on like he wasn't even there and sat in her chair at the far side of the room, putting a heeled boot onto the table. Ciara stood to the side as the man seemed to be ill and she didn't want to stand anywhere near him.

Evony flicked her hand and said, "Speak."

"They gutted me," The man feverishly said, "they gutted me and left me lying there with the shit."

"And yet you're still here nagging in my ear. What do you have to report?"

The man, Ciara saw he was holding his chest just where his heart was, looked shocked and a little annoyed at the captain's words and he said, "Don't you even-"

"Let me finish that sentence for you," Evony cut in, looking up at the man, "no, I don't care about you. No, I don't care that you were foolish enough to get attacked. I would like my report now or I'll make another little hole in a place you desperately need." Rolling her eyes and looking over to Ciara she said, "You have to train them," before looking back up to a sweating male.

"That wench Lauren came to my mansion. She said she simply wanted to see me, see how I was doing after all of these years, and she seemed to have... friends with her."

Evony's ears perked up at this and she asked, "What friends?"

"A copper I've seen around, I don't know 'er name. There were another voice other than the two wenches on the ground, not quite Scottish but not anything I've heard before. But what caught me ear when I was bleeding out," The man added the last bit with a harsh tone and continued, "said they were goin' to the Dal Riata."

"Ysabeau," Evony said, her fist coming down hard onto her wooden table. "The bitch will receive the wrath of the Morrigan one way or the other. She's been a thorn in my side for far too long and it doesn't seem as if you are going to be of much use to me anymore." Evony looked up at the man, pulled out her pistol, and was about to fire when the man let out a holler.

"You need someone to keep the slave in check, don't you!"

It was Ciara's turn for her ears to pick up. She had not heard anything about a slave before and she wondered what it could mean. She knew Lauren was going on about her lover, Nadia, being kidnapped in the night and taken, but did that mean it was Evony's doing? Ciara's mind wouldn't have even fathomed it if not for her own reconnaissance of the mansion Lauren had lived in, and she had watched through the window as a the blonde had gone to bed with a woman that was not white, but she was not fully black either. Ciara tried to wrack her brain for the term but it failed her in that moment. Halfbreed, Ciara finally thought, the thing be called by a halfbreed. If the man thought Nadia was a slave, and not the lover, would he be so inclined to check up on her?

Evony let the pistol fall back onto her shoulder as she looked idly at the man. "I've already got someone to look after her at the Cove, Taft. What good of use are you?"

"I-I can make weapons. _Enchanted _weapons!"

"Oh come now, little man. Enchanted with what, mermaid tears? Please." Evony raised her pistol to aim at the man again when he put his arms up submissively.

"With science. I can make your blades burn like ice-fire and I can make your men like walking zombies. They won't feel pain, they won't complain, they won't care about anything else but following your orders. I'm a smith. Just let me live and I'll make you the most feared captain across the world." The man, Taft, nodded encouragingly and it made Ciara's stomach roll over. She didn't care for the sweating man, she would much rather be back on board her own ship, but she knew whatever display of knowledge the man was needed to show would mean she would have to stay aboard the Fleurette for just a while longer.

Evony slowly holstered her pistol and looked up at the man before smiling and saying, quite pleasantly as if she had never held a pistol aimed for his forehead, "Show me."

* * *

Ciara stumbled back aboard her ship after the display from the little man on board the Fleurette. He had, somehow, done what he said he would. Pouring some sort of liquid on the sword, without a wick or fuse, the sword immediately blazed with cold fire, and Evony had taken it from his grasp. Looking at it wonderingly, she had skewered a passing sailor and watched, a smile holding her features, as the man began to burn around the wound; his face contorted in pain and Ciara could see his guts were burning up inside him while he lived, and finally he silently fell dead to the deck of the ship.

"Interesting..." Evony had said, holding the now bloodied blade up so the waning sun could glint off of it. "And you can make more of these?"

"Aye, I can make however you like. But, only I know the recipe..."

"Fine, you may live. Show me the other thing." Evony had swung the weapon backwards, an action one would do to clean the blade, and the blue fire disappeared immediately.

And oh did Taft show her what she wanted. He sprinkled a bit of powder onto his hand and gone to another sailor- by this time they were all scared for their lives- and picked a particular strong and buff looking one. Holding his head down to where the powder was, the sailor did not dare fight for fear of whatever punishment his captain would inflict on him, he quickly blew it into the man's face, covering his own, and they watched as the sailor fell to the ground in convulsions. Before long, and after a lot of blood spitting, the sailor looked immediately paler and he had a dead look in his eyes.

"Tell him an order," Taft had said.

Evony had walked up to the man and stared at him, a bemused look in her eyes, and said, "Reach out and grab the man next to you by the neck." Immediately, and with the horrified look of Taft, the sailor raised up his right arm and squeezed the man's neck. Evony laughed, and after Taft showed he was being choked to death, she said, "Good, now release him." The sailor immediately did so. She had told him then to go along with his business, and off the sailor walked, almost as if he were just a shell without a soul.

Ciara had shivered to herself and looked on as the captain and the man began to talk silently together. Evony still had that same amused smirk on her face, and the man looked as if he was going to keel over any moment from pain. Ciara had gotten a good look at his chest when they had walked up to the deck of the ship, and she could have sworn there was a small slit, almost like a hole, over his chest. She saw dried blood trailing down the would-be wound, and she wondered if he was injured in some way. However, her thoughts were immediately useless as the man had begun to show them his bag of tricks, horrifying everyone on board that had compassion and a soul.

They had finally stopped their blubbering and Taft, with a smile on his lips, ran down into the hold to no doubt begin his assignments. Evony had come back towards Ciara and looked her in the eyes, though the blonde still looked toward the ground, smiling as if she had conquered the world already.

"We sail for Lochlainn Cove. If you run across Ysabeau and the Dal, you are ordered to sink it to Davy Jones' Locker, understood?"

"Aye, ma'am."

"Good, now you may board your precious Ailech, and get out of my sight. When we reach the Cove and if the Dal has gotten there first, we kill all those who enter. Oh and Fairchild," Evony called lightly as Ciara had almost gotten to the plank connecting the two ships and she closed the gap between them, flicking her finger across her chin, "if you betray me, I will do worse than simply kill you." Her smile would kill a harpy and Ciara simply nodded, not trusting her own voice, and waited for her captain to tell her she could leave again.

Ciara had nodded again more slowly, looked up into Evony's eyes briefly, and walked back onto her ship. After giving orders promptly to set sail, she did not calm her breathing until she was safely inside her own cabin. Putting her head in her hands, she looked over to the pigeon coop above her and sighed as the animal had been sitting there for over a few days, ready for her message back to the Dal and her confidant.

Getting up and grabbing a piece of paper, she quickly jotted down an obscure note, taken the pigeon down from it's roost, and bound it with string to it's leg. Opening the small paned window, she quickly let the bird fly, and watched as it went East. So the Dal is East, Ciara thought as she watched the bird find it's bearings and fly off to the destination it was programmed to go.

Ciara didn't know if warning her lover, and in response the Dal, was a good idea or a bad one. She knew Evony was smart enough to know Ysabeau knew something about her plans, and she wondered if the brunette knew about Ciara's brief betrayals. Ciara huffed at this and began to clean her cabin; a nervous habit she couldn't' break. She didn't ask to be apart of the Morrigan's valiant fleet of pirates, she didn't ask to be against her friend, her best mate** Ysabeau, but she had no choice. If Evony found out any of Ciara's secrets, she would be gutted on the spot, and with that new invention that the small man had made, she could be sure it'd be a very painful death at that.

Finding nothing else to do, nothing else to clean, Ciara the Fairchild sat down at the end of her table and put her knuckle to her lips in thought. Thought that she would not be broken out of until almost a day later when her first mate would come running to her, telling her a ship that resembled the black sails of the Dal would come into view. That day was long off, however, and for those few blissfully peace hours, Ciara just sat... and thought.

* * *

***Lochlainn. I know that the spelling of the actual Ash-hole's name is Lachlan. However, Lochlainn means "Of the Lake" or "From the Lake" and thought this adaption would fit the story better. Hope you enjoyed.**

****Heh, I changed it to "best mate" instead of just "mate" because people are kinda confused, which is my fault. Ysabeau and Ciara are NOT together. They're just really really good friends. Mate is not used in the "together" sense in the sentence, but as a implication that they are just friends, they are best of friends. Sorry for the confusion.**


	6. Her Battle

**A/N: It has been far too long since I updated this. For you 5,000 words! I deeply apologize for the long delay and I can't promise it won't happen again, but I will do my best to not let that happen. I hope you all love the chapter and are sticking with our pirates. Enjoy.**

**Also, shout out to Vslayer for Beta on this. Thanks, lovely!**

* * *

"Keep your free hand close to you! It will do you no good if I chop it off," Thomisina shouted as she pivoted around and swung her sword into the opposing steel. The swords clashed together, making an impressive tinging noise, and Thomisina saw how the blonde's arm shook with the weight of the weapon she handled.

Choosing to look over this fact, the reformed copper swung her weapon again towards the blonde, making it collide into the edge of the blade. Her opponent backed up a few paces with the force, squared her shoulders, and took a leap forward as she swung out towards Thomisina.

The pirate quickly swirled to the right and ducked just below the weapon, she watched as it swung above her and saw the sky was a beautiful orange and crimson color of the waning day, and used the momentum to get her feet and swing her arm once more. The sword almost collided with the petite woman's right side, Thomisina saw if she did not stop the woman would be cut in half, and said woman tried to move her heavy weapon to block the attack.

"Too slow! You would have been skewered on the spot," Thomisina said, stopping her weapon just in time before it cut into her opponent, and tapped the blonde's side with her weapon.

"We've been practicing since mid-morning, Tamsin!"

The copper rolled her eyes and looked at her identical weapon she held in her hand. It weighed less than five pounds and if the petite blonde couldn't even handle that for more than a few hours, she would be dead when they hit the island they were going to. Which would be sad, Thomisina thought as she looked toward the blonde who was huffing and bent down to catch her breath, because the copper really did enjoy the company of the small woman.

"If you can't even hold this up, you'll be dead in your first fight. Spray some water on yer face and get back here. We will start again when you get back." Thomisina looked at the confused and beaten down face of the woman opposing her and she yelled, "Well, hurry up!"

The blonde flinched but quickly left Thomisina in the middle of the deck of the ship, heading toward the small barrel in the far corner of the right side of the Dal.

Putting her weapon down beside the barrel, careful to balance the hilt onto the side of the wood so it wouldn't fall over, Lauren quickly took a handful of water and splashed it onto her face. Placing her hands on either side of the barrel, Lauren slowly opened her eyes and looked at her reflection, which continued to ripple around her as small droplets of water fell from her face, and she sighed as she bent her head; small strands from her undone ponytail falling and trailing into the water slightly.

How good she would feel if she could simply submerge her head into the barrel and drown in it. The responsibility, the actions she was going through, to get Nadia back... it was too much sometimes. But she had to, she reminded herself as she looked into her reflection's eyes. She took care of everyone else, that was what Lauren Lewis did, and she had to remind herself of it every single day since stowing away on the pirate ship four weeks prior.

"Here, milady," A gruff voice said beside her.

Lauren jumped a few feet in the air, afraid unnecessarily that her thoughts would have been heard, and turned as something was thrust toward her. Looking down, Lauren saw a very intricate and sleek weapon design she had only seen in books and small pictures from centuries ago. Looking back toward Dyson, Lauren smiled and opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.

"This weapon," Dyson supplied instead, "has been passed down generations in my family. An old beggar, well we thought him a beggar, came to me father's father's father, asking for lodging where everyone else turned him away. My ancestor gave him shelter in their home, and when the next morning, after giving the old man food and lodging, came the only thing that was left when my great great grandfather and mother opened their eyes was this sword. It is said to be enchanted by the beggar."

Dyson looked down at the blade fondly and, again, held it out towards Lauren. "I give it to you, milady. It weighs slightly less than the sword you carry now, and I think your small form will be to an advantage in combat."

"And have you looked at my small form recently, Quartermaster?" Lauren asked playfully, standing erect to look into the taller man's eyes. Her previous somber thoughts left her mind quickly.

The man laughed after clearing his throat and said, "Nay, I meant no disrespect, my lady. You are substantially small, yet tall which will be to your advantage, and this weapon is just for your size. I am making a fool of meself, aren't I?"

It was Lauren's turn to laugh, "No, no, sir Quartermaster. It is quite alright. However, I cannot take such a precious heirloom from you. It would not be right."

"Aye, milady, you could," Dyson said, shaking his head and smiling down toward the woman. "I have me own weapon passed down from my father; this weapon has been piling enough dust for the centuries. It has been waiting for someone more honorable than I."

"Nonsense," Lauren said abashed, holding out a hand to run delicate fingers over the weapons sleek black scabbard. Just below the hilt of the sword, on the blackened sheath, was two small, just barely below each other, bronze pieces of metal. The metal was disconnected in two long pieces, that individually had two strips of metal that wrapped around the sheath, to connect back together at the left side of it into two small bronze holder; that could connect to a piece of string or other securing fastener to the waist. The two metal pieces tied the black and bronze together nicely as the hilt, and butt, of the blade and the guard were also bronze. A small marking on the sleeve, Lauren saw it looked like a small disc just above the guard, was bronze as well and she admired the craftsmanship of the sheath of the weapon.

Looking back up at Dyson she said, "You are an honorable man if I ever saw one."

"I am a pirate, if I shall remind you."

"And pirate cannot be honorable men?"

Dyson smiled warmly down toward the woman but said, almost matter of factly, "Some pirates would kill you before you could speak, milady. If not that they would defile your body and throw you overboard, beaten and sullied, to be a feast for the sharks."

"But you would not do as much, Quartermaster," Lauren said defiantly. Her brown eyes pierced Dyson's blue ones and he had to bow his head from the intense stare the blonde gave him.

"I told you to hurry, woman," A harsh voice resounded next to the blondes, breaking them from their conversation.

Turning slowly, Lauren saw none other than Tamsin walking toward them with sword in hand. Her hair was billowing in the harsh wind, that had just picked up, and her green eyes were trying to feign coldness. However, Lauren knew, Tamsin actually liked her, and even the Quartermaster, and the front she put up was for no one else but the Captain who continued to watch most of their quarrels with a stern eye.

It had been just the day after Lauren had been forced to sit through the appalling dinner Ysabeau had set for her, that she had pulled Tamsin into a nook of the ship the blonde had found on her numerous travels around the large ship. Speaking to her hurriedly of the fight Lauren and the Captain had gone through with each other, she spoke harshly to Tamsin to beg her to treat her like shite when they were out and about; mostly dueling, so that the captain could not enact her promise to her.

Tamsin, who had taken it quite well Lauren thought, immediately followed the woman's pleas and began, when they were dueling, to yell and treat her worse for wear when they were out in the open.

"Beg your pardon," Lauren said, her head bowed to show respect as Tamsin stopped just in front of the blondes. "Sir Quartermaster-"

"I told you, a lass like yerself can call me by me name," Dyson cut in, unafraid- if not amused- by the tall blonde in front of him.

"Dyson," Lauren reprimanded, "was just showing me a new weapon. He says it will be better for me in my duelings."

"Does he," Tamsin said, her head nodded down once to show her feigned doubt, "show me."

"S-show you?" Lauren asked, looking back toward Dyson and then toward Tamsin.

"Yes," Tamsin smiled wickedly, crossing the small space between the females and holding Lauren's gaze steady as, if Lauren wanted to, she could move her head upward and bring their lips together. "I want you to show me how this weapon is better than the steal made by our blacksmiths."

"I-it is not better steel," Lauren began but was cut off again as Dyson started to speak.

"It is better steel even if it was made centuries ago. The lass will carry the blade in hand while I carry the sword she was using. We shall show you, madam."

"I was never a madam," Tamsin said, a small smirk crossing her lips at the Quartermaster's remark.

"Aye, I believe you," Dyson said, a warm smile on his own lips as he looked toward a bemused Tamsin. "My weapon, lass." Dyson handed the blade to the petite blonde, who took it slowly, and walked beside the barrel to retrieve the blonde's sword.

"Sir," Lauren said after holding the sheath tightly in her left hand and unsheathing it with her right, and saw the straight edged sword, "what is this weapon called?"

"I do not know, milady. You have read books, I will gander, I'm sure you know the closest name to it."

"I-well it looks like a Tang broadsword but that would make it more than... a millennium old, sir. The steel would be withered away by now."

"Aye, but this sword is enchanted, case we forget." Dyson smiled and put a strong hand on the small of the petite blonde's back, leading her toward the middle of the deck. Squaring his shoulders, placing his left foot slightly behind him and his right in front, he looked at Lauren with fire in his eyes. Though his smile quickly disarmed her. "Now, my eyes will say one thing, but my body will do another. Are you ready, my lady?"

"I-I think so," Lauren said, her hands beginning to sweat at the force her new opponent exuded from himself. She had never faced anyone other than Tamsin and she was beginning to feel anxious, as if the Quartermaster would kill her, and she would have rolled her eyes at herself from her stupidity. Dyson would do nothing to her but teach her, maybe even a better teacher than Tamsin, and would do no harm to her just as he promised the days prior.

"Good. Now if I move my right foot to the left..."

"I move to the right, sir."

"Aye, that is correct. You must circle your opponent if he is foolish enough to play with his prey. You must wait to strike, keeping your eyes here," Dyson said, taking his left hand from his side and pointing two fingers toward his eyes, "or you will lose the fight before it has begun."

"Pirates, that is what we will be facing one would think, would not fool with me, sir. They would immediately attack after spotting me as I am weak to them."

"Are you weak, milady?"

Lauren almost stopped circling, her footing almost stumbling but she quickly righted herself and flung her arm to the left to deflect the halfhearted strike from her opponent, and said, "No. I do not wish to be weak."

"Then you will not be as much. As your hand, I promise you that."

Lauren smiled slowly, her eyes staying on Dyson's as she continued to circle, as she knew the Quartermaster- as long as she had known him- would never lie to her. If he said she would not be weak any longer, she wouldn't be. She would be strong, and even if she lost the first duel she fought, she would still stay strong in her heart. That, she promised herself.

* * *

Ysabeau watched idly as the two blondes fought, Tamsin making quick work of each duel toward Lauren, and eyed the blonde as she lost the duel again.

"You're dead," Ysabeau whispered to herself as she heard Tamsin yell at the doctor that she was too slow.

Placing a hand on her cheek, her elbow on the banister of the ship, she watched as her would-be-lover moved to the barrel filled with fresh water at the right of the deck. Looking through her eyelashes, Ysabeau watched as Dyson walked out of the hold with a compact weapon in hand. It's blackened sheath, and the small bronze fragments attached to it, shined brightly in the crisp colors of the day and Ysabeau watched questioningly as her Quartermaster walked to Lauren's side.

The blonde had raised her hand to her chest in shock and fear when Dyson had spoken to her, and Ysabeau had to smile at the woman's meek front. Not that it was a front, Ysabeau reminded herself, but it was insatiably cute nonetheless.

For the life of her, Ysabeau could not hear the conversation exchanged between the two blondes down below, but she could see Dyson's earnest expression of devotion as he continued to reach the weapon toward the petite blonde for her to take it. Lauren was smiling and laughing, Ysabeau guessed as she could barely see her face and only her lovely golden hair, with the Quartermaster but was quickly dissuaded as Tamsin came up to them; yelling at the blonde woman to get back to training.

Ysabeau chuckled at the tall blonde's brashness- let's see Lauren want to be with her after that- and watched bemused as Lauren bowed slowly towards her. Taking Dyson's weapon in hand, and Dyson coming around the barrel to retrieve Lauren's, Ysabeau watched as the two blondes, with the third blonde following behind with crossed arms, walk toward the middle of the deck.

"So, he has challenged her to a duel then. He would make a wiser teacher anyways."

The captain watched as Dyson swung halfheartedly toward the blonde as her steps faltered slightly and was surprised when the blonde righted herself almost immediately, swinging her own weapon back toward his to deflect it. Ysabeau could see her Quartermaster's surprise as well and he quickly smiled to cover it up.

Dyson, tired of the game, quickly stepped with his right foot forward toward the blonde, thrusting his sword out to skewer her. Lauren, however, saw it coming and quickly moved the sleek weapon to her left, deflecting it easily, and kept her weapon there as she twirled around.

Just as she came to the end of her spin, she quickly thrust her weapon-hand to her left while hitting his stomach with a very hard left jab with the scabbard, making Dyson lose his momentum, as his weapon was swung back from the woman's thrust, and sputter backward, and Lauren quickly saw how he faltered. Using her own momentum from the spin to continue the strike, Lauren brought her sword down, right above Dyson's throat.

Ysabeau's eyes widened at the skillful footwork and the winnings of the very first sparring duel against her Quartermaster. Even from the distance she was from the two sparring blondes, Ysabeau still heard the excited chatter reach her ears.

"I won! I actually won! Sir Quartermaster!" Lauren spoke in rushed words, her excitement getting the better of her. "I know it only have been one duel but this is the first I have ever won!"

"Aye," Dyson said, holding his stomach with his left hand and smiling warmly at the petite woman, "you won, lass. If that were a real duel, you would have killed me with that attack. Your small form will work to your advantage once we reach the island."

Ysabeau watched Lauren deflate slightly, but a smile was still on her lips, and saw the blonde sheath her weapon and hold her arms wide to embrace Dyson.

"Thank you," Lauren said, pulling Dyson into a warm hug, "I know it only to be one duel but it gives me hope that I may win again. That is all I needed."

"Any time." Dyson smiled and looked toward Tamsin, who had been leaning against the banister as she watched the short duel with feigned disinterest, and said, "You should challenge her again to see if she can win against you."

Tamsin nodded, pushing herself from the banister, and walked slowly toward the middle of the deck. "You won't win so easily against me," She said, looking at Lauren as if she were some type of rare delicacy.

"I _will _win again," Lauren said, laughter in her eyes.

"Remember," Dyson called, taking up Tamsin's spot by the banister, smiling as the small barmaid- Kenzi was her name- came to lean against him, "pirates will have pistols and even bombs. We have no code when it comes to hand to hand combat. You must always be aware of someone coming from behind and stickin' you in the back."

"Right, right," Lauren whispered to herself as she watched Tamsin move around her.

"She's a tough one, aye?" Kenzi asked, her neck bending back to look up toward the tall man.

"Aye, lass. I haven't seen you around."

"Like to stick to meself. That a problem, lassie?"

Dyson chuckled and said, "Nay, no problem at all," before looking back toward the progression of the duel.

Ysabeau smiled at Lauren's determination, she would have made an amazing lover she decided, and looked out toward the calming sea, which looked like burning and roiling sand from the waning sun, after hearing the clanging of weapons below her. She would have looked back toward the duel, just to see how it was going, but she spotted something far off on her starboard side.

"Trick," She called.

"Aye?"

"I need a telescope now."

Ysabeau's first mate immediately took off his own telescope and gave it to his captain. Frowning and turning to see where she was looking at, Trickster covered the top of his eyes to see without the glare of the sun on his brow.

"It's the Ailech. It's the Ailech, Trick," She repeated, closing the instrument and holding it toward her first mate as she moved hurriedly toward the starboard banner, placing her hands on it as she looked out into the ocean.

"We have not found a pigeon coop," Trick said, his eyes trailing back toward the water fearfully.

"Captain Fairchild could be coming to talk."

"No, a visit in a month does not portray peaceful talks. She is coming to take the ship or sink her to Davy Jones' Locker."

"That is madness, Captain. She would not be so foolish."

"She would if she were being ordered. Look at the gun ports, Trick, they are open."

Trickster's eyes widened further as he fumbled with his telescope. Opening it again and peering through it, he saw with a sickening feeling that his captain was correct. All but one of the gun ports were open and he could see the black muzzles of the cannons peering out with cold cruelty.

"Shite," He whispered for no one's benefit but for his own. "She's mad to ride against us, Captain."

"She thinks our friendship binds us, does she. She is mistaken," Ysabeau whispered to herself as she moved her index finger across her chin in thought.

"We must do something, Captain. The wind is in her favor and she will be on us in a matter of minutes. We could outrun her," Trick said after a moment, the thought dawning on him seconds before but he feared suggesting it. His captain's next words proved his fear to be right when she glared at him.

"The Dal Riata does not run, you foolish man. We stay and fight." Ysabeau's high heels clapped quickly across the deck as she got to the front bannister that looked out over the deck. She looked at the determined expression of the petite blonde against the taller one, if under different circumstances, Ysabeau would have been impressed that the blonde had not yet lost, and shook her head as she made eye contact with her Quartermaster. Gulping in a large breath Ysabeau screamed at the top of her lungs, "All hands to battle stations! We're in for a bloody fucking attack!"

* * *

Lauren's wrist was gripped swiftly in the hand of the taller blonde's and she was being dragged to the door of the hold; thankfully she had enough time before the blonde grabbed her to sheath her weapon and was carrying it in her left hand. The small girl, Kenzi, and Dyson both portrayed fear as she passed them and she tried to look back toward her captain.

"Tamsin," Lauren said gruffly, trying to make the blonde release her, "you are hurting me!"

"Those pirates are going to do a lot more to you than hurt you, lass," Tamsin said breathlessly as she opened the door to the hold and pushed Lauren inside. "You stay here and you do not make a sound. Stay out of the men's way, it's going to be really hectic in 'ere, and you do not make a peep."

"Tamsin," Lauren began, trying to catch hold of the woman's hand before she left her, but was cut off as Tamsin whirled on her and glared down, small doors in hand.

"They are probably comin' for you, Lauren. If they've got their gun ports open that means they don't give a shite about actually killin' you. Stay. Down. Here." With that, Tamsin closed the doors in Lauren's face and the latter heard the hurried footsteps recede quickly.

Lauren looked around slowly, her eyes adjusting, saw small barrels that were at decent levels, and moved to sit on one. She could hear the men above her and in the hold scream and yell to one another as they hollered for cannon balls and grapples. Lauren had never been in a pirate battle before, how could she, and she felt chills and gooseflesh creep up her bare arms and covered legs as she thought of what the pirates aboard the Ailech were going to do to the crew of the ship.

"No, they will not board," Lauren said, trying to reassure herself as she held her sheathed weapon in her lap. "They will not board, they will not board, they will not-"

Lauren's words were cut off as a harsh sound ripped through the ship from her right. Not a mere second later Lauren heard her captain clearly, as if the woman was standing right next to her, scream the two words that the blonde dared hear.

"Fire all!"

"Fire all," Dyson repeated as he no doubt, Lauren could picture it clearly, held up the sword he had used to duel in the air as he shouted the order.

The blonde quickly covered her ears, she brought up her knees so that her weapon would not fall to the floor without support, as an even louder sound cascaded through the air. The cannons to her right were fired, it was as if it were a game the way they seemed to fire right after the other, and she could only imagine the damage that was done to the other ship.

"Brace!" A scream came from above and Lauren heard the men down in the hold scream the command in rapid succession.

Lauren, who had nothing to brace to, looked around stupidly as she tried to find something that she could grasp. Only after the fact did she realize it was a big mistake as she was thrown, almost immediately after a loud crack from behind her, into the steps that led out of the hold and to the deck. Her head smacked hard against the steps and she lay there, dazed, for a few moments.

Groaning and putting her hand to her head, she felt warm blood trickling down, and she muttered to herself slowly as she tried to find her weapon. Her vision was blurred, and she remembered in the many books she read that that could only be a bad sign, and she found it increasingly difficult to find her weapon.

"There," She muttered as she felt the cool scabbard against her fingers. "I need... I need to-"

"Prepare to be boarded!" Yet another scream resounded above her.

Lauren tried to understand what that meant, her head was so fuzzy, and it finally dawned on her as her vision cleared only a little. The Ailech's crew were about to board them. The one thing Tamsin said they probably wouldn't do since they had their gun ports open. They didn't care about Lauren, they were supposed to want to kill her and that's that, so why were they boarding?

"They want me," Lauren said to herself, backing away from the hold doors and holding the weapon's sheath in both hands to her chest as she tried to fathom the situation. "They want me," She repeated, looking from side to side to see if any of the crew could hear or see her. Try to help her even. Lauren scoffed at that, they were pirates she reminded herself, they would rather take her to the Ailech themselves in hopes of getting into Captain Fairchild's good graces.

The blonde almost screamed when she heard foots slam against the deck above her, no doubt from the Ailech, and swords being unsheathed immediately. Lauren heard nothing but clanging metal, grunts, yells, and gasps as a sword would pierce the opposing man's flesh. She wondered briefly of Kenzi, Dyson, Tamsin, and even Captain Ysabeau and how they would fair against the onslaught and she shivered as she curled into a ball in front of the barrels she had sat on.

She was going to die, Lauren's mind reeled as she placed her hands on either side of her face, she was going to die and she couldn't do anything about it.

"Am I weak?" Lauren asked herself. "Am I weak?" No, she told Dyson she was anything but weak. She had said that she would win against any opponent and she would do so gladly. She wasn't going to die, she didn't want to die, she couldn't die that day because she had- she _had_- to save Nadia. There was nothing more she could do but will herself to live.

She was going to live.

Grabbing the scabbard with her left hand, Lauren slowly got up as she heard another round of men boots hitting the deck above her, and she eyed the door to the hold.

"I am not weak," Lauren said one last time before unsheathing her weapon, holding it deadly in her right hand and the scabbard in her left, and she ascended the stairs quickly, placed her forearms against the hold doors, and pushed them open swiftly.

The dying sun's rays hit Lauren like embers in a fire being scooped into her eyes. She blinked rapidly, she was in the darkness for too long, and looked around at the carnage around her.

Multiple bodies lined the deck of the Dal Riata and blood poured from them toward the side of the ship, no doubt feeding and bringing hungry human eating sharks to their location. The crew fought valiantly, men thrusting and parrying attacks as the crew from the Ailech came man after man from their ship.

Just as Lauren exited the hold, she saw one of these valiant men get a belly full of steel, skewered after misreading his opponents stance. Gulping down air, Lauren tried not to look at the dead or dying and scavenged the deck for anyone she knew. She would have called for them, but she knew that would have been a mistake, and she walked a few feet away from the doors of the hold.

Looking behind her, she saw the individuals she was looking for. Dyson, Tamsin, even Kenzi- the barmaid had a smaller contraption shaped like a crossbow in both hands-, and Captain Ysabeau were all together, almost back to back, taking out any man foolish enough to ascend the stairs to the back of the ship, maybe trying to get to the steering column to take control of the Dal.

Smiling as she found the people she was looking for, she tried to move toward the stairs but was caught off guard when a man, he had a black beard and many missing teeth, jumped in front of her with a wicked grin on his features. Without a word, the man leaped and giggled gleefully toward the blonde,his sword behind him and about to swing.

Lauren gasped as she went to autopilot, her hands doing all the work her mind knew they could, and she lunged at the man before he had time to swing. Placing her left hand, and her scabbard, on the back of the man's left side of his back, her right pierced his abdomen with a hard thrust and with a yell she brought the sword up inside the man's body.

It was over faster than she thought, even faster than the duel with Dyson, and the glint in the man's eyes slowly faded as his essence, his life, left his body.

Lauren let out a cry when the body, it's own mass pushing him, slowly detached from her weapon and fell to the floor of the deck with a squelching noise, dead. Her body shuddered as she looked down at the body, his belly opened and it's bloodied contents flowing out of him slowly, and she wanted to run to a bannister and vomit.

Have to get to the captain, she thought instead, trying to get her eyes unglued from the man she had made into a corpse. She _had _to get to the captain now.

Quickly stepping around the dead man and beginning to run, she skidded on his blood as she got to the stairs and slid into the bannister on her left side. Her side, especially her lower stomach and shoulder where the rope got her, burned and she opened her eyes to look up the little stairs she needed to run up to get to freedom. Not freedom, she reminded herself, just more safety than she would have down there on the deck.

Shaking her head, trying to get rid of the ringing in her ears or the dead and dying gasps she heard all around her, she was about to ascend the stairs when a shape moved rapidly toward her from the right. Gasping loudly, she brought her weapon up to defend herself, but was all too aware how slow she had been. Before she could do anything, a hard fist hit the side of her cheek and she went down hard onto the deck, her head hitting the first step in the exact position her recent wound was.

Placing the back of her palm to her cheek, she refused to let her weapon go, she tried to look up toward the person who had hit her and saw only a blurred face.

Before she could do anything else, before she heard three people shout her name almost simultaneously above her, Lauren Lewis blacked out as she felt her body being lifted into the air as someone grabbed her and walked her to the plank that connected the two ships.


	7. Her Pursuit

"This ain't lookin' good, boss," Kenzi yelled, her crossbow contraption letting fly a small arrow into the gullet of their enemy. Blood spurted from his mouth as he tried to breath, filling the bloodied deck with more of the crimson liquid, and his legs moved him backward as if they were on autopilot. Instead of dying on the ship, the man's legs hit the lower part of the bannister and he catapulted into the ocean.

And the ocean just happened to be filled with bloodthirsty sharks.

The barmaid heard the squelches and guttural screams almost immediately from the enemy as he was bitten into by multiple razor sharp teeth. Her face grim, she looked around to her captain that had contracted her only a week prior.

"The Ailech is gone, we have lost our prize, and-"

"Don't you think I know that," Ysabeau shouted as she skewered the last remaining enemy aboard her ship. Her dark hair was plastered to her face, her dark eyes scanning the bloodied mess that was her deck after the man slid from her blade, and she flicked her hand across her face to remove some of the strands. The woman looked down to the right of her, exactly where Lauren had been hit by the bloody Fairchild, and she growled as she moved to the bannister just in front of the steering column.

Raising a hand and bringing it down hard onto the wood, she felt it crack beneath her and sighed. Ysabeau would have to find the very expensive and rare wood to fix her ship, and the bannister in which she just broke, very soon if she would hope for the Dal to run smoothly again.

Ysabeau's hair rained down from the clip that had secured it just a few hours before, and she sheathed her weapon into her sheath as she looked down aimlessly. Her forearms were laying on the bannister and she would have tried to jump across it, braving the steep fall, if it meant she would have been able to rescue the pretty blonde that had come to her weeks ago.

She hadn't been aware that Ciara Fairchild had come aboard her ship near the end of the fight. The captain had been too late, shouting the blonde's name, as Ciara had brought a hard fist into the woman's right cheek. Lauren was strong, Ysabeau thought as she raised a hand to her forehead, the woman had never dropped her weapon even in unconsciousness.

The captain would have moved down the steps to challenge Captain Fairchild, but just as her legs carried her to the stairs, Ciara had sent another wave of her pirate mates to take the ship. In the heat of the moment, Ysabeau and the others beside her, had lost Lauren to the Ailech.

Almost immediately the ship pulled away from the Dal Riata, the plank that had been connecting them fell into the ocean uselessly, and in the state Ysabeau's ship was in, they couldn't very well catch up to them.

"Whatever we need to do, we should do so quickly," A honey voice came from behind the captain. Turning, Ysabeau saw the tall recruit, her hair was also undone and falling in strands around her face, kicking the dead bodies into the water to be feasted on by the sharks. "If they take her to the cove, that's fine, but she told me that Ciara the Fairchild didn't give two spits 'bout her."

Ysabeau let the small of her back rest on the bannister, but her eyes pierced the blonde's with venom. "I only allowed her on my ship because she promised me fortune. We go to find her so I can get my money."

"Oh please," The blonde scoffed as she kicked the last body, a little too aggressively, overboard, "we both know you care about her, so shall we cut the farce and get under way?"

"How dare you talk to me like-"

"Oi!" A voice yelled from beside the advancing women. Brunette and blonde looked to their respective lefts and rights, and saw the raven haired girl with her hands crossed tightly across her chest. "I didn't sign up so we could lose our only piece of leverage."

"Actually," Ysabeau said, her own hands clutched firmly around the hilt of her weapon, "you came aboard 'cause you're a thief and was chased by a copper. I doubt that counts."

"Aye, and see how that 'as gotten me," The girl said, glaring quickly toward the blonde. Green eyes darted downward and to the captain, and Kenzi looked back toward Ysabeau. "I heard the blonde poppy talkin' about the cove. I know where it is, and I can take us there, but only if you'll stop acting like you're mortal enemies and work together."

"She's the one that threatened to kill me," Tamsin said, her green eyes piercing the captain's brown ones. "If you wanted Lauren, fine, say so but don't think she's going to want you back 'cause you threaten the person she's attracted to. If that were the case, Nadia is certainly doomed."

Ysabeau's jaw clenched, but instead of punching the woman opposite her and skewering her on the spot, the captain simply turned toward the steering column and shouted out toward the remainder of her crew- which happened to be only five people counting the three she had just talked to, "We're in for a hell of a ride to get the Dal to the cove. It takes at least eight to steer her properly and we only have five left. Everyone does their part, and I promise ye, the fortune will be immense. Now stop your gawking and get this ship ready to sail!"

Turning, Ysabeau looked at both the barmaid and the blonde in turn, turned her head slightly and called out, "Dyson, Trick, get up here and help with navigation!" She waited for a few moments and turned when she heard scuffling of someone ascending the steps. Looking to her right, she saw her first mate come up the stairs, his chest and face splashed with blood from the slain, and his brown eyes found the captain's. "Where is Dyson?" Ysabeau asked, scavenging the deck again as she tore her eyes from her friend.

"Ysabeau," Trickster said, his eyes downcast, "the Quartermaster has been taken by the Ailech."

* * *

Lauren Lewis woke up with her left side pulsating with pain, and her cheek stinging just the same. Her head was cloudy and she had no idea where she was, though she felt the rocking force that signified her to be in the belly of a ship; much as she had been when she stowed away on the Dal Riata a few weeks prior. Her hair fell in strands in front of her eyes, and her face, making it almost impossible to see anything without flicking them away. She did, however, feel a strong yet gentle hand dot her cheek with a cloth filled with ointment that smelled much like castor oil. The pain in her cheek dwindled slightly, and her head cleared only a smidgen when the hand patted her cheek again with the oil.

Why would an Ailech lackey be helping sooth her pain, Lauren thought as she pressed her eyes closed to not alert the man- she assumed it to be a man from the strong and callused hands- of her consciousness.

She couldn't think about it for much longer as she felt the strong hands push her onto her right side, presumably to get to her injured stomach and shoulder, and lift up her shirt slightly.

"Okay, enough!" Lauren got onto her knees, as she kicked out and away from the man who was helping her, and flicked her hair out of her eyes. "I think that is enough healing for-" The woman stopped mid-sentence when she saw who was actually helping her. "Dyson," She breathed her question and almost hitched in a breath from hopefulness.

Crouching over as she got to her feet, she almost tackled the Quartermaster as she hugged him, wrapping her arms around the back of his neck and squeezing. Her smile radiated across her face as she squeezed the man tighter, the Quartermaster's own hands coming up to press gently onto her back, and she finally let him go after one more tight hold.

"Dyson, where are we?" Lauren finally looked around, the hope in her eyes dwindling as she looked at her surroundings. The two companions were locked in what seemed to be the brig of the ship, it looked exactly like the hold of the Dal Riata the blonde found, and she looked with worried eyes back towards the Quartermaster.

"Ciara the Fairchild had come aboard the Dal after you. When she got you, she's the one that gave you the impressive bruise, I quickly left my position at my captain's side and followed. I was captured before I could rescue your ladyship."

"So.. she's taking us to Lochlainn Cove?"

"I assume so, my lady." A few more moments passed and Dyson watched as the darker blonde placed her right hand on her lower stomach. "May I continue to bandage your wounds?"

"What?" Lauren asked, as she looked questioningly toward the Quartermaster. Glancing down at her wounded side, she said, "Oh, yes, of course. Thank you," She added when she turned onto her right side and let the man lift her white blouse a little ways above her ribcage.

The discoloration was great, it was already starting to heal only slightly, and Dyson took great care in smearing the oil across the woman's side and upper arm. After he was done, he took the gauze bandages Ciara had given him, and quickly wound the cloth around the darker blonde's chest and upper arm.

When he was finished, and Lauren could effectively move her shoulder as she rolled the socket back and forth, Dyson sighed and rested the bowl the oil was set in, and the bandages, outside of their cell. Moving away from the bars, the Quartermaster looked gravely into Lauren's eyes and tried not to alarm her.

"I need to tell you something, Lauren," He finally spoke, his fingers dancing across his lap in a nervous habit.

"What is that, sir Quartermaster?" Lauren asked, her eyes meeting his as she raised her head from peering at her bandages.

"I will understand if you think less of me, my lady, once I've told you. Ciara and I... we are-" Dyson cut off as a loud bang came from across the room; someone was coming into the hold.

Lauren turned quickly toward the sound, getting onto the balls of her feet immediately, her eyes focused only on the person coming into the room. If she had her weapon with her, Lauren thought, she would have been a much more menacing force than what she must have looked like then.

"There is no need to fear me, Lauren. I am not here to kill you," A sweet voice said, the words resounding off the inner walls of the hold.

"Ciara," Lauren breathed, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end, the memories from months ago flooding her mind as the dark blonde woman came into the room, her sword hanging loosely on her belt. Despite herself, Lauren felt her body begin to shiver and she could not control it. Digging her nails into her knee, the woman hoped the pain would soothe her feverish memories, and looked daggers toward the captain of the Ailech.

"You are shaking like a leaf!" Ciara exclaimed, her feet bringing her closer to the bars of the hold. "I will not hurt you, Lauren. I only wish to bring you to the Cove and be done with this."

"Why," Was the only word Lauren could push from her lips.

"Because if I don't, Evony will kill me and my lover. I will do everything in my power to keep you alive, Lauren, but I cannot risk the life of the man I love."

"The man you... love?" Lauren's eyes widened and looked back toward Dyson, who immediately lowered his eyes in guilt. "Before she came in, you said you needed to tell me something. 'Ciara and I'-, that's what you said. Oh God, you're the one that gave her our coordinates. You're the reason dozens of men died aboard the Dal Riata!"

"Lauren, please," Dyson said as he stood, trying to go to the blonde's side.

Swatting him away, and standing herself, Lauren quickly aimed a hot retort toward the Quartermaster, "You don't get the opportunity to touch me ever again! Countless men are dead because of you. The captain, Kenzi, Tamsin, they could have all died because of you and your betrayal!"

"Dyson was only doing it because of his love for me," Ciara cut in, her hands flying to her hips. "His loyalty to the Captain Ysabeau is what kept most of the crew alive. They have enough men to sail to the Cove after us, and fight against Evony and the monsters the little man has created."

"Monsters?" Lauren asked, her eyes widening as she wondered who the 'little man' Ciara spoke of could be. Her mind reeled over the revelation of Dyson, the second only person she felt as if she could trust, betrayed her and she wanted to smack the living hell out of the man. She wondered briefly if the Beau would be able to really follow the trail to the Cove and Lauren shivered at the thought of the place they were heading.

Ciara had opened her mouth to speak but, presumably, her first mate came crashing down the stairs and huffed out a breath before he spoke to his captain.

"We've reached the Cove, 'aptain."

Raising her eyebrows in question, Ciara the Fairchild looked back toward her first mate and said, "Thank you, Cayden, alert the men to be armed and ready for anything the Cove will throw at us on our arrival."

"Aye, ma'am." Cayden left immediately, leaving the three blonde's alone again in the darkness of the hold.

"Please don't do this," Lauren whispered, her eyes turning slightly bloodshot from unshed tears of anger and fear combined.

"You will be reunited with Nadia again, Lauren," Ciara said, her eyes turning downcast as she said the words. "I thought that was what you wanted."

"Don't you dare turn this around on me, Fairchild," Lauren said with such venom both the enemy blondes took a second glance toward the woman. "You have no idea what they want to do with me, what they'll do to Nadia to force me into compliance, so don't act like you do. You still have a chance," Lauren pleaded, her tune swiftly changing, "you can let me go in one of the longboats. I'll find the Dal and we'll come back in force. Please, don't let me go in there unarmed and unprotected! Please, Ciara!"

"T-there is nothing I can do," The Fairchild said, her eyes darting from Lauren's solemn brown to the brilliant blue of Dyson's. "I am sorry, but the Cove beckons, you will be put in shackles and lead out of the hold in due time."

"Ciara, please, wait!" Lauren called, her hands hitting, pulling, battering the bars as she flung herself at them again and again. "You don't understand what they want from me! You can't possibly understand!"

The woman's words were hollow as the hold doors closed swiftly behind Ciara. The two blondes were plunged into darkness for the second time that day.

* * *

Thomisina the Copper quickly followed the captain into her cabin and quickly shut the door before Ysabeau knew she was there. When the brunette turned, her brown eyes glaring back toward green ones, Thomisina swiftly closed the distance between the women and got into the captain's face.

"Look, I get you don't like me, that's fine, but if we're going to rescue Lauren we have to work together. I don't bloody like it, but we have to, savvy?"

Ysabeau's eyes never left the blonde's and she slowly said, "We are under way, hot on the heels of the Ailech, and I just got chewed out by a barmaid who, strangely enough, could be me friend in another life. I have lost my Quartermaster to Fairchild and I have lost the woman I feel that I can have some type of connection with, I feel it in my bones, and you think now is the best time to talk about this?"

"And I like her too," Thomisina said, forgetting everything else the woman said, "and I also like Dyson, he's a pretty upstanding guy, so I'm going to ask ya again if we can put aside our differences and get Lauren and Dyson back?"

Ysabeau, still keeping her full attention on the blonde, took a seat at the end of her table and touched her fingers to the small map that was uncovered on the wooden table. "We'll be there in less than half an hour, Tamsin. I expect you to be ready to go into battle."

The blonde smirked and said, "I was born ready for this, Captain Ysabeau."

Thomisina had turned to leave the room, satisfied her voice had finally been heard from the past few weeks, but stopped as Ysabeau called out to her. "It's just Beau to you, darlin'."

Looking back, Thomisina smirked and mock saluted her captain, before shutting the door and walking back up to the deck of the ship, ready to save the woman she had also come to have a connection with.

It seemed only yesterday, Thomisina thought as she took up the steering column and continued to follow the small trail of barrels that Dyson must have thrown secretly overboard from the Ailech, only yesterday that she had met the darker blonde and formed such a connection with her. It was all too easy, it seemed, and that was how Thomisina liked it.

She would rescue the darker blonde and then have her run before Thomisina would haul the bruised and battered Dal Riata, along with her pirate crew, into the Royal Navy's port. She would only be a constable for just awhile longer.

* * *

Lauren felt a harsh hand, which belonged to Cayden the First Mate, hit her bruised shoulder as he ordered her to keep up with the rest of the pirate crew. There was only five of them entering the Cove, Ciara, Dyson, Cayden, Lauren, and a random crew mate that could have been the Quartermaster, and the rest of the crew stayed aboard the Ailech.

The group had taken a longboat into the cove, while the Ailech stayed at a safe distance away, and they had gotten onto the sandy beach when Lauren had pointed a finger to the far side. A small, hidden, cave which was the meeting place no doubt, was tucked into the far corner of the beach and wasn't easily found. It was the perfect place for a group of pirates to want to meet and Lauren had to bite her lip from letting out a cry of pain from the harsh hand.

All pleas had left the dark blonde as she set foot onto the beach and she quickly caught her footing and continued to keep up with Dyson and Ciara. There was nothing else to do, Lauren thought, she had no weapons and the Dal Riata's Quartermaster held the broadsword that he had given the blonde just earlier that day. Lauren was the only one without a weapon as they walked into the dank cave.

The cave was filled with pools of water that had seeped from the stalactites above them. The walls seemed to shine with water and small patches of moss crept across the area. Taking her eyes off of the magnificence of nature, Lauren was suddenly in a very large room that housed almost two times the pirates that were once aboard the Dal Riata. Their swords were thankfully sheathed at their sides, their eyes pinned on Evony, who was simply pacing back and forth in front of some type of altar.

"Fairchild," Evony said happily, her eyes finding the individuals, "it was so nice of you to finally show up!"

"I never break a promise," Ciara retorted, her eyes slowly counting the men in the room.

"No, you do not. Now the ritual may begin."

"What ritual?" Ciara interrupted, her eyes rising up to Evony's.

"The ritual to make us immortal, of course."

Evony raised her hands and the men before her began to bang their feet into the ground in some type of chant. Lauren, who had not tried to look around nor cared about the superstitious ritual as she already knew that was why the brunette wanted her, saw the woman was standing in front of a large man. The man, Lauren found, had a woman, who looked so tiny compared to the one who held her, in front of him and the blonde found the brunette seemed to have been sleep deprived. Her body hunched slightly as she tried to keep her knees from bending below her, and her head was held slightly downward, unseeing of the newcomers into the vast room.

Lauren's breath hitched when she saw the darker woman and she forgot her place for only an instant. "You," She whispered first, her eyes trying to find the beautiful green of the woman being held. It had been so long, such a very long time, since she had even laid eyes on her lover and her mouth went dry as she saw the woman's broken form. She wished then for her broadsword that Dyson carried, and to be able to run toward the man who looked dead, and squelch it into his chest. What had they done to her?

Taking a deep breath, deeper than she even thought possible, she let out a roar that echoed through the cave's endless corridors, making sure the woman being held had no way of missing her.

"Nadia!"

* * *

**Thanks for the support and hope you enjoyed the chapter. Hope to get the next one up a lot sooner than two weeks.**


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